The invention relates to a terminal block for a cable connector, comprising a housing of insulating material, a number of signal contacts accommodated in contact cavities of the housing, at least one ground contact arranged between two adjacent signal contacts, and a planar circuit substrate having a ground layer on one side and circuit tracks on the opposite side connected to the signal contacts at one end and having a solder island for connection to a signal wire at the other end, and to a cable connector comprising such a terminal block.
EP-A-0 971 451 discloses a terminal block and cable connector of the above-mentioned type. In the known terminal block, a row of five contact cavities is provided in the housing accommodating five contacts. The central contact is used as the ground contact, so that at least one of the contact cavities in the row is used for a ground contact. Further, there are no provisions to connect a ground layer of a terminal block to the ground layer of a next terminal block in one connector having a stack of such terminal blocks.
The invention aims to provide an improved terminal block of the above-mentioned type.
To this end the terminal block according to the invention is characterized in that the ground contact comprises a shielding contact blade having a contact lip connected to the ground layer of the circuit substrate and at least one contact lip projecting outwardly to contact the ground layer of a corresponding terminal block.
In this manner a terminal block is obtained, wherein the ground contact operates as a shielding between adjacent signal contacts and wherein the ground contact further provides an interconnection between two stacked terminal blocks of a cable connector. Moreover, a separate contact cavity in the housing for a ground contact is not required.
The invention further provides a cable connector, comprising a plurality of stacked terminal blocks, wherein the contact lips of the shielding contact blades of one terminal block are contacting the ground layer of the circuit substrate of a next terminal block.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a terminal block 1 for a cable connector, comprising a housing 2 of insulating material. The housing 2 is shown in more detail in FIGS. 4 and 5. The housing 2 comprises a row of contact cavities 3 having an inlet opening 4 for receiving contact pins 5 of a mating connector 6 shown by way of example in FIG. 9. The terminal block of FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises four signal contacts 7 accommodated in the contact cavities 3. A planar circuit substrate 8, more particularly a printed circuit board, has a ground layer 9 on one side and circuit tracks 10 on the opposite side. At one end the circuit tracks 10 have a solder island 11 for connection to the signal contacts 7 and at the other end the circuit tracks 10 have a solder island 12 for connection to a signal wire of a cable not shown.